This chapter is from the book

A Telltale E-Mail Trail

The Case for Business Rules

The brief series of e-mails reproduced here illustrates some of the snarls in
day-to-day tactical decision making that plague most organizations today. The
overall problem is so pervasiveso bigthat it can be difficult
even to see at first. It is so much part of our everyday way of doing business
that we tend to accept it as a given and simply work around it. (The exchange
presented here is a real one, altered only to disguise the identities of those
involved.)

As illustrated in the exchange, we often discover holes in operational policy
only after it is too late to do much about them, at least without
significant expense or loss of face. Is there a solution? Yes, there isthe
business rule approach.

What are business rules? You probably have a pretty good intuitive
sense of them already, at least from a business perspective. For now, let's
simply characterize a business rule as follows.

Business Rule

A directive intended to influence or guide business behavior.

We need not dwell on more precise definitions for nowthere is plenty of
opportunity for that in the rest of the book.1
More important is why your business should focus on business rules. I will
answer that question in this part of the book.